Scholarships

Limited scholarship aid is available for the Fall Conference. To apply, send your current CV and a statement of writing intent—describing your background and goals as a writer—to Ed Southern at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Refunds and Cancellations

Cancellations must be made in writing and arrive at the Network by 5:00 pm on Friday, November 1, 2013, for you to receive a refund of the registration fee, less 25%. No-shows or cancellations after November 1 are nonrefundable.

Manuscript Mart, Critique Service, Marketing Mart, and Master Class fees are not refundable if you cancel. However, if we are not able to find a place for you in the Manuscript Mart, Critique Service, or Marketing Mart, we will return your check(s) for related extra charge(s).

Master Class application fees are nonrefundable.

Send all refund requests to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Deadline for early registration (5:00 pm by phone or mail; midnight if registering online). The first 12 Fall Conference registrants to mention this sentence at the registration table will receive $20 off their next year’s NCWN member dues.

November 15-17

On-site registration available at conference

November 15-17

Fall Conference in session

For Writers with Special Needs

The North Carolina Writers' Network strives to make our programs and services accessible to all writers, including those with special needs. If you require conference materials either in large print or in Braille, or if you require a sign-language interpreter, please register for the conference and submit your request to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than October 11. If you require any other special assistance, please let us know as soon as possible at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will do our best to accommodate all reasonable requests.

Workshop Descriptions

Saturday, November 15

9:00 – 10:30 am: Workshop Session I

Writing Fiction: Some Basics with Clyde Edgerton Bestselling author (and Fall Conference keynote address deliverer) Clyde Edgerton will lead a brisk but informative discussion on the fundamentals of writing good fiction.

The Ins & Outs of Indie Publishing with Jen McConnel This workshop is for anyone considering diving into the murky pool of self-publishing. We’ll talk about the steps to take, from making a business plan to hitting “publish.” We’ll also discuss aspects of self-publishing that many writers forget: cover art, editing, and marketing. There will be a chance for Q&A at the end of this workshop.

Companion Books: Poetry & Prose, Fiction & Nonfiction with Michael White In this workshop, we will consider the phenomenon of companion books, defined here as a pair of inextricably linked yet freestanding books. We’ll discuss pairings such as Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and Huckleberry Finn, Evan S. Connell’s Mrs. Bridge and Mr. Bridge, Mary Karr’s Lit and Sinner’s Welcome, as well as the instructor’s own forthcoming companion books, Travels in Vermeer and Vermeer in Hell. One question we will consider is how a writer can benefit from looking at one subject through the lens of two different genres. Another is how the lessons one learns in one form can translate to success in another. We’ll wind up our session with writing exercises that will explore different approaches to a given subject.

Poetry Master Class with Peter Makuck**CLOSED** This class will consider a range of questions that writers must ask themselves before they consider a poem to be “finished.” Among other things, we will consider imagery, structure, line-breaks, sonic-devices, tone, setting, speaker, etc. We will also look at several kinds of poems—letter, list, object, place, persona, and how-to. I will distribute examples. My goal is to have writers leave the workshop with the beginnings of at least one new poem.

Please submit three poems for discussion; poems should be saved in a single MS Word document, using 12-point font, and sent as an attachment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. At least one will be talked about in class and, if time permits, more. The workshop will be critically honest and frank, but supportive and encouraging as well.

Creative Nonfiction Master Class with Philip Gerard**CLOSED** One of the hardest things for a nonfiction writer to do is to write a detailed, dramatic, factual scene of an event that actually happened, but that he or she was not present to witness. In this workshop, we'll address practical tools of the craft that can be applied to creating such vivid scenes-- incorporating a method I call “triangulation” that uses corroborating, disparate sources to stage a moment of drama acted out by real people in a real place, while remaining loyal to the truthfulness of events. We'll look at how this technique can apply also to memoir, to scenes in which we as authors participated, bringing them to a heightened level of suspense and emotional engagement for the reader. In the end, the practical application of craft can lead to an artistic result.

Fiction Master Class with Rebecca Lee**CLOSED** This session will think about fiction through the work of its participants. We will discuss the necessary elements of great storytelling – character, idea and structure—as well as its many pleasures—language, image, voice, all the eccentricities that make a writer's work private and individual. We will also explore the possible nonfiction elements within fiction, as those often form a backbone for the work.

Registrants should submit no more than 10 pages (12-point font, double-spaced) of fiction – if a sample from a longer work, submit the FIRST 10 pages from that work – as an attachment in MS Word to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., no later than November 1. Registrants may also be asked to forward their manuscript to other Master Class participants prior to the conference.

11:00 am – 12:30 pm: Workshop Session II

Finding Writing Groups that Work with The Sea Quills A good writing group can be a writer’s best asset. A bad one can be a writer’s worst enemy. How do you find – or found – a writing group that works? How do you make sure your group brings out the best in all its members? Members of the Wilmington area’s popular and successful writing group, The Sea Quills, will share some of what they’ve learned along the way.

Getting Started: The Short Personal Essay with Virginia Holman The short personal essay (750-1,500 words) can be an end in itself, or it can serve as a portal to longer work. We'll discuss the form and its possibilities, and do some in-class exercises to help you identify your obsessions and clarify your intent. In addition, we'll look at several markets that routinely publish short essays.

Legal Issues for Writers with Mitch Tuchman Mitch Tuchman, an attorney specializing in intellectual property, will address a range of legal issues that writers may face, including how authorship results in owning a copyright, the rights of a copyright owner, protecting your copyright, entering into publishing agreements, and the possible pitfalls of collaborating with a co-author. “My plan at every point in the presentation,” Tuchman says, “is to be responsive to the experience of the audience, taking questions and respond to anecdotes, giving general guidance (as opposed to legal advice) and encouragement.”

2:30 – 4:00 pm: Workshop Session III

How Not To Win the Bad Sex Award: Writing Love Scenes Readers Will Love with Emily Colin Have you ever struggled with writing non-clichéd, believable sex scenes? Perhaps you’ve glanced at the Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award winners and worried that one day, you’ll find yourself among their illustrious ranks. Have no fear; you’re not alone. It can be challenging to craft creative, meaningful romantic encounters that don’t make readers roll their eyes, wince, or worse. This workshop will explore how to write intimate scenes that move the story forward, enhance plot development, and help readers get to know your characters better. Together, we’ll examine cringe-worthy fictional scenes, as well as ones that accomplish so much more than simply giving readers a voyeuristic glimpse into the act itself. We’ll talk about what works, what doesn’t, and—most importantly—how you can incorporate these techniques into your own writing. This workshop is intended for writers in all fictional genres, including mainstream, women's fiction, romance and mystery. Please bring original work to share, as well as at least one scene that you’d personally nominate for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. A sense of humor is mandatory!

From Book to Buzz with Bridgette A. Lacy This workshop is designed to help authors pitch, promote and sell their work. The course will offer authors insight on how to gain the competitive edge in the tough bookselling marketplace. Once you’ve published your novel or nonfiction book, you have to make readers aware of your work and then want to buy it. This workshop will help you think about a juicy sound bite that will help you grab the attention of booksellers, media and readers. I’ll also share traditional and innovative marketing strategies including social media campaigns that will help you create buzz.

Flexible Writing: Yoga for Writers with Jen McConnel Are you feeling stuck? When the words won't flow, sometimes our bodies lock up, too. Similarly, if your body is stiff or in pain, your creativity may be hampered. Combining gentle yoga poses with your creative process can help you unlock your creativity (and your joints) and get the ideas flowing again. This workshop will feature rejuvenating yoga postures that you can do anywhere, no matter your level of flexibility, plus some creative writing activities to help you find your spark. By connecting your body with your writing, you'll discover new ways to get over writer's block and back to the story. No yoga experience needed; bring your sense of adventure, leave your inner critic at the door, and prepare to have fun.

Sunday, November 17

9:00 – 10:30 am: Workshop Session IV

Editing Your Own Work: Much More than Grammar and Punctuation with Elizabeth King Humphrey and Addy Robinson McCulloch Two professional editors will introduce the different levels of editing and discuss common weaknesses in manuscripts, including problems with voice, characterization, and writing style. Participants will walk away with a better idea of what to look for when editing their own work, including a self-editing “checklist” and information about affordable, reliable resources.

The Tao of Self-Doubt: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Writers with Malcolm W. Campbell Writing is a difficult, lonely endeavor—one marked by occasional vacillation between self-doubt (“I’m a hack”) and grandiosity (“I’m the greatest writer ever”). Yet, self-doubt and heightened self-esteem are healthy, useful emotions for the writer, when they exist within certain limits. How can we put these and other emotions to use in our apprenticeship as writers? What are some effective means of preparing ourselves for the emotional realms of writing? Of working with editors or in writing groups? And of dealing with the time we spend alone, in reflection, both when we’re writing and when we’re not? I’ll present ten lessons for how to work through the emotional demands on creative individuals. We’ll laugh, we’ll cry, we’ll sing “Kumbaya.”

The Short Poem with Malena Mörling Charles Simic has said: “The religion of the short poem in every age and in every literature has a single commandment: Less is always more. The short poem rejects preamble and summary. It is about all and everything, the metaphysics of a few words surrounded by much silence.” In this workshop, we will read and write a few short poems. We will consider, apart from its length, the characteristics of the short poem. What is left unsaid, what is included and why? How does silence help make every word tell? We will study how images are used in short poems as well as similes and metaphors and their intricate and far-reaching effects.

Presses and Agents and E-Books, Oh My: 40 Years in the Book Biz with Ellyn Bache In the past 40 years, the book business has undergone huge changes for both writers and publishers. How do you cope in this volatile environment? How do you make decisions that will move your career forward? Should you seek out an agent and a large national publisher? When is a small regional press a better choice? What rights do you want to hold onto? What about self-publishing? Should you do an e-book? A print book? Both? Is it smart to submit to online journals – or do you always want to see your work in a print edition? How much time should you spend on blogging and promotional travel? How important is your website?

Writer and publisher Ellyn Bache will deal with these issues and others from the perspective of someone who has been in the writing business since the 1970s, first as a newspaper freelancer, later as the award-winning author of dozens of commercial and literary stories, and finally as a critically-acclaimed novelist and owner of a small press.

11:00 am – 12:30 pm: Workshop Session V

Creating Compelling Characters: What Playwrights Can Learn from Actors with Susan Steadman Many approaches to acting also provide valuable tools for the playwright. This workshop will focus on motivation, subtext, choices and economy. Guidelines to improvisation, such as “show, don’t tell,” will also be explored. Through the analysis of short scripts and in-session writing exercises, participants will gain insight into the development of unique characters.

Writing a Life – Including Your Own with Jim Dodson To bring a real-life life to life on the page requires both scrupulous research and imaginative creativity – even when that life is your own. Bestselling author Jim Dodson, who has won awards both for his biographies and for his memoir, will describe the challenges that must be met to write a vivid biography, autobiography, or memoir.

What’s In Your Attic? Recovering Your Old Poems with Mark Cox If you “can’t go home again,” maybe you never left. Journals and false starts are often the fundamental “scales” we practice, preparing for the jazz solo of a new poem. We write them, tuck them way forever, and move forward. This presentation will center on the recovery and revision of a few of my older attempts. It will also discuss the ways such exercises offer perspective on one’s poetry as a body of work. Bring some of the oldest journal entries and poem drafts you can find—we may or may not have time to do a revision exercise.

Cooperative Book Promotion with Sheila Boneham Promotion can be about more than simply selling books! Learn how you can work with independent booksellers and other retail outlets and with not-for-profit organizations whose work you believe in to extend your publicity reach, support the cause, promote local businesses, and sell more books. We’ll discuss my experience working with a local bookseller and local and national NFPs, and work through some brainstorming and other exercises to get your cooperative promotion started.

Master Classes

Master Classes offer intermediate and advanced writers a chance to delve more deeply into a particular genre. Each Master Class will take place over the course of Sessions I, II, and III, and will be limited to the first sixteen qualified registrants.

Creative Nonfiction Master Class with Philip Gerard**CLOSED** One of the hardest things for a nonfiction writer to do is to write a detailed, dramatic, factual scene of an event that actually happened, but that he or she was not present to witness. In this workshop, we'll address practical tools of the craft that can be applied to creating such vivid scenes-- incorporating a method I call “triangulation” that uses corroborating, disparate sources to stage a moment of drama acted out by real people in a real place, while remaining loyal to the truthfulness of events. We'll look at how this technique can apply also to memoir, to scenes in which we as authors participated, bringing them to a heightened level of suspense and emotional engagement for the reader. In the end, the practical application of craft can lead to an artistic result.

Fiction Master Class with Rebecca Lee**CLOSED** This session will think about fiction through the work of its participants. We will discuss the necessary elements of great storytelling – character, idea and structure – as well as its many pleasures – language, image, voice, all the eccentricities that make a writer's work private and individual. We will also explore the possible nonfiction elements within fiction, as those often form a backbone for the work.

Registrants should submit no more than 10 pages (12-point font, double-spaced) of fiction – if a sample from a longer work, submit the FIRST 10 pages from that work—as an attachment in MS Word to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., no later than November 1. Registrants may also be asked to forward their manuscript to other Master Class participants prior to the conference.

Poetry Master Class with Peter Makuck**CLOSED** This class will consider a range of questions that writers must ask themselves before they consider a poem to be “finished.” Among other things, we will consider imagery, structure, line-breaks, sonic-devices, tone, setting, speaker, etc. We will also look at several kinds of poems—letter, list, object, place, persona, and how-to. I will distribute examples. My goal is to have writers leave the workshop with the beginnings of at least one new poem.

Please submit three poems for discussion; poems should be saved in a single MS Word document, using 12-point font, and sent as an attachment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. At least one will be talked about in class and, if time permits, more. The workshop will be critically honest and frank, but supportive and encouraging as well.

Admissions

While publication credits are not required, Master Class participants should be experienced writers. Each Master Class will be limited to the first sixteen qualified registrants.

Manuscript Mart

Manuscript Mart provides writers with the opportunity to pitch their manuscripts and get feedback from an editor or agent with a leading publisher or literary agency. A one-on-one, thirty-minute pitch and Q&A session will be scheduled for you, to take place on Saturday, November 16, sometime between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M., or on Sunday, November 17, between 9:00 A.M. and 12:30 P.M.

Please note, a Manuscript Mart session can lead directly to publication—but don't expect it to do so. Think of it, instead, as a learning opportunity, and you'll get more out of it.

Manuscript Mart sessions are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. YOUR MANUSCRIPT MART REGISTRATION, WITH MANUSCRIPT AND PAYMENT ENCLOSED, MUST REACH THE NETWORK BY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1.

Guidelines

Submit a one-page query letter and 20 double-spaced, sequential pages of your fiction or nonfiction manuscript (for book-length projects, you must include a one-page synopsis of the work as a whole, in addition to the query letter and 20 pages). Make sure your name is on each page of your submission. NUMBER YOUR PAGES.

All submissions must be double-spaced with twelve-point font on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper with one-inch margins.

You must be registered for the conference for your Manuscript Mart session to be scheduled.

Checklist: two copies of manuscript; registration form; check to cover Manuscript Mart ($150); a separate check to cover all other conference fees, if you are registering for the conference through the mail.

NOTE: If Manuscript Mart fills, your check will be returned to you.

Manuscript Mart Reviewers

From the names below, select your first, second, and third choice on your registration form. We will try to accommodate your first choice; if we cannot, we will select an appropriate editor or agent for you. The name of your assigned agent or editor, as well as the time and location of your session, will be included in the packet you will receive at the conference registration table.

Critique Service

The Critique Service provides writers with in-depth literary critique of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry a seasoned writer or editor. A one-on-one, thirty-minute review session will be scheduled for you, to take place on Saturday, November 16, sometime between 9:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M., or on Sunday, November 17, between 9:00 A.M. and 12:30 P.M.

Critiques are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis. YOUR CRITIQUE SERVICE REGISTRATION, WITH MANUSCRIPT AND PAYMENT ENCLOSED, MUST REACH THE NETWORK BY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1.

Guidelines

Submit 20 double-spaced, sequential pages of your fiction or nonfiction manuscript (for book-length projects, you must include a one-page synopsis of the work as a whole, in addition to the 20 pages), or 10 pages of poetry. Make sure your name is on each page of your submission. NUMBER YOUR PAGES.

All prose submissions must be double-spaced with 12-point font on 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper with one-inch margins; poetry submissions should include no more than one poem per page.

Checklist: two copies of manuscript; registration form; check to cover Critique Service ($150); a separate check to cover all other conference fees if you are registering for the conference through the mail.

NOTE: If Critique Service fills, your check will be returned to you.

Critiquers

From the names below, select your first, second, and third choice. We will try to accommodate your first choice; if we cannot, we will select an appropriate critiquer for you. The name of your assigned critiquer, as well as the time and location of your session, will be included in the packet you will receive at the conference registration table.

Marketing Mart

Marketing Mart provides writers with an opportunity to create or refine an effective plan to pitch, promote, and sell their current, upcoming, or proposed books. The Network will schedule you a one-on-one, thirty-minute session with a publishing or bookselling professional, to take place sometime between 9:00 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. on Saturday, November 16, or between 9:00 A.M. and 12:30 P.M. on Sunday, November 17.

Marketing Mart sessions will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. YOUR MARKETING MART REGISTRATION, WITH MATERIALS AND PAYMENT ENCLOSED, MUST REACH THE NETWORK BY FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1.

Guidelines

Registrants must submit the following:

A one-page synopsis of their book or manuscript

A one-page bio or CV of themselves

The first three pages of their book or manuscript

A check or money order, made payable to NC Writers’ Network, for $150

Note: If Marketing Mart fills, your check will be returned to you.

All submissions must be double-spaced, in 12-point font, on single-sided, 8.5 x 11 sheets, with one-inch margins (so the marketers have room for notes)

You must register for the Fall Conference to have a Marketing Mart session scheduled.

Marketing Mart Reviewers

From the names below, select your first and second choice. We will try to accommodate your first choice; if we cannot, we will select an appropriate reviewer for you. The name of your assigned reviewer, as well as the time and location of your session, will be included in the packet you will receive at the conference registration table.

Faculty Biographies

Ellyn Bache’s first freelance newspaper story was published in the early 1970’s, and her articles appeared in papers for years, primarily The Washington Post. Then she turned to short fiction, which was published in commercial women’s magazines like Good Housekeeping and McCall’s until that market dried up in the late 1980s. Since then, her literary fiction has been widely published in journals and in a collection that won the Willa Cather Fiction Prize. Her critically acclaimed first novel, Safe Passage, was made into a 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon. Her most recent novel, The Art of Saying Goodbye (William Morrow, 2011), was an Okra Pick and SIBA Book Award nominee. Others have been chosen as Literary Guild selections, Foreword Magazine award finalists, Reviewers Choice Book of the Year nominees, Madcap Award winners, and PW “Recommended Holiday Reading.” She is the owner of a small regional press, Banks Channel Books, which was active until a few years ago, launching the careers of several writers who won the press’s Carolina Novel Award and then benefited when Banks Channel Books re-sold the titles to major New York publishers. After 20 years in Wilmington, Ellyn lives in Greenville, SC. Visit her on the web at www.ellynbache.com.

Sheila Webster Boneham writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, much of it focused on nature, environment, and travel. When her second mystery, The Money Bird, was released this fall, Sheila teamed up with Pomegranate Books in Wilmington for their “second annual” cooperative benefit book launch. Six of Sheila’s 19 books have won major awards, and her short work has appeared in literary and commercial publications. She has worked as an editor for a variety of publishers and freelance writers, and has judged fiction and nonfiction for international writing contests. Sheila holds a Ph.D. degree in folklore/cultural anthropology from Indiana University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Stonecoast/University of Southern Maine, and she has taught writing at Indiana University, University of Maryland, American University, and universities abroad. Learn more about Sheila, her writing, and her classes and workshops at http://www.sheilaboneham.com.

Michelle Brower began her career in publishing in 2004 while studying for her Master’s degree in English Literature at New York University, and has been hooked ever since. During that time, she assisted the agents Wendy Sherman and Joelle Delbourgo, and found herself in love with the process of discovering new writers and helping existing writers further their careers. After graduating, she became an agent with Wendy Sherman Associates, and there began representing books in many different areas of fiction and non-fiction. In 2009, she joined Folio Literary Management, where she is looking for literary fiction, thrillers, high-quality commercial fiction that transcends genre, and narrative non-fiction. She enjoys digging into a manuscript and working with authors to make their project as saleable as it can be, and her list includes the authors S.G. Browne, Rebecca Rasmussen, Dana Gynther, and Michele Young-Stone, among many others.

Malcolm Campbell is the author of two adventure travel guidebooks, editor of professional golf instructor Dana Rader’s golf instructional book, Rock Solid Golf, and founder of the independent publishing house Walkabout Press. In Malcolm’s 20 years as a commercial writer, he’s written everything from power-tool-accessory catalogs to television commercials to cover/feature stories for national magazines. Malcolm is the 2008 recipient of the Doris Betts Fiction Prize, and he teaches in UNCC’s Writing Program.

Emily Colin has been writing as long as she can remember. She still has the black-and-white composition notebook in which, at the age of six, she penned her first short story—“Bloddy Monster: The Brave Monster Who Killed the World,” complete with illustrations. It sits on the bookshelf alongside her debut novel, The Memory Thief, released in September 2012 by Ballantine Books and chosen as a Target Emerging Authors pick. A Brooklyn native, Emily finished high school in New Zealand and now lives in Wilmington, where she serves as the Associate Director of DREAMS of Wilmington, an award-winning nonprofit dedicated to providing impoverished youth with high-quality, free-of-charge arts programming.

Mark Cox teaches in the Vermont College MFA Program and in the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW, where he served as founding chair. His honors include a Whiting Writers' Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, The Society of Midland Authors Poetry Prize, and numerous fellowships. His books include Smoulder (David R. Godine, 1989), Thirty-seven Years from the Stone (Pitt Poetry Series, 1998), and Natural Causes (Pitt Poetry Series, 2004). Most recently, he edited Jack Myers’ posthumous poetry collection The Memory of Water (New Issues, 2011).

Jim Dodson is currently Writer-in-Residence for The Pilot newspaper and editor of award-winning PineStraw Magazine in Southern Pines. He also serves as Founding Editor of O.Henry and Salt, the arts and culture sister publications for Greensboro and Wilmington, respectively. His books Final Rounds and A Son of the Game were named “Top Golf Book of the Year” by the International Network of Golf in 1997 and 2009. He latest project, American Triumvirate: Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and the Modern Age of Golf, was published by Knopf in 2012. This book was the basis for a documentary film of the same name that aired in September 2012 on The Golf Channel, with a script by the author. Dodson has won the William Allen White Award for Public Affairs Journalism and the USGA’s Herbert Warren Wind Award, twice. He is a member of both the Order of the Longleaf Pine and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Clyde Edgerton is the author of ten novels, a book of advice, a memoir, short stories and essays. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNC Wilmington. He lives in Wilmington with his wife, Kristina, and their children.

Philip Gerard is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, including Down the Wild Cape Fear (2013) and The Patron Saint of Dreams, the winner of 2012 Gold Medal for Essay/Creative Nonfiction from the Independent Publisher. He teaches in the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW.

Virginia Holman is the author of Rescuing Patty Hearst (Simon & Schuster), a memoir of her mother's untreated schizophrenia. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Authors Selection, and received the Outstanding Literature Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She's published essays and articles in DoubleTake Magazine, Redbook, Women's Health, Prevention, Glamour, Self, O Magazine, More, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and elsewhere. Her work has been reprinted in Pushcart Prize series, broadcast on This American Life, and she's received fellowships and awards from the North Carolina Arts Council and The Carter Center. An avid kayaker and outdoorsy type, she also writes the monthly Excursions column for Salt Magazine in Wilmington. She teaches at UNCW.

Elizabeth King Humphrey earned her bachelor's from Columbia University, a master's in creative writing from UNCW, and an editing certificate from the University of Chicago. Her writing has appeared in The Writer, Scientific American Mind, AOL.com, WomenOnWriting.com, Greater Wilmington Business Journal, UNCW Magazine, and the Wilmington Star-News. Her book credits include an upcoming guide to eating gluten free, The Feminist Movement Today, part of the Finding a Voice series, and Reader’s Digest Know It All, as a contributor. She edits books for Amazon's CreateSpace, UNC Wilmington's Lookout Books, and several talented self-published authors. She manages publications for UNCW and teaches online copyediting courses for the University of California San Diego Extension. Elizabeth is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and has been involved with the local group of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Before moving to North Carolina, the Denver native lived in Prague, London, and Johannesburg. She enjoys coaching writers, trolling bookstores, as well as reading and reviewing books for the San Francisco Book Review.

Bridgette A. Lacy is an award-winning writer and publicist. She was a staff features writer for The News & Observer from 1992 to 2008. As a publicist, she represents authors, food entrepreneurs and small businesses pitching their stories to local and national media as well as trade publications. She also arranges media interviews and events bookings. She has 20 years of experience as a storyteller promoting literary, culinary and other cultural-related ventures. Her work is featured in 27 Views of Raleigh: The City of Oaks in Prose & Poetry.

Rebecca Lee is the author of the short-story collection Bobcat, named a “Best Book of the Month” by Amazon.com and a “Book of the Week” on Oprah.com, as well as the novel The City is A Rising Tide. She is the winner of the 2013 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and teaches fiction and nonfiction at UNCW.

Nicki Leone showed her proclivities early on when as a young girl exchanged the jewelry a well-meaning relative had given her for Christmas for a dictionary. She supported her college career with a part-time job in a bookstore, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that her college career and attendant scholarships and financial aid loans supported her predilection for working as a bookseller. She has been in the book business for over twenty years. Currently she works for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, developing marketing and outreach programs for independent bookstores. Nicki has been a book reviewer for several magazines, her local public radio station and local television stations. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Paul Lucas joined the Janklow & Nesbit Associates in 2007. He started in the legal department and began representing authors in 2011 and is now eagerly expanding his list. He is looking for literary, commercial and genre fiction (specifically science fiction, fantasy and horror), with a nod to the literary. He also loves narrative nonfiction, history, biography, business, political and popular science. Clients include Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Robert Baer, Richard Phillips, Matthew Mather, and John Burley. He is not looking for, and does not represent, picture books, women’s fiction, cookbooks, screen or stage plays, poetry, memoir or inspirational. When in doubt, feel free to query him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the synopsis and first 10 pages in the body of the email.

Peter Makuck grew up in New England and graduated from St. Francis College in Maine where he majored in French and English. He lives on Bogue Banks, one of North Carolina’s barrier islands. His Long Lens: New & Selected Poems was published in 2010 by BOA Editions and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In April, Syracuse University Press released a third collection of short stories, Allegiance and Betrayal. His poems and stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The Nation, The Gettysburg Review, The Hudson Review, Poetry, The Sewanee Review, Yale Review, and others. He is Distinguished Professor emeritus from East Carolina University, where he founded and edited Tar River Poetry from 1978 to 2006.

Jen McConnel first began writing poetry as a child. Since then, her words have appeared in a variety of magazines and journals, including Sagewoman, PanGaia, and The Storyteller (where she won the people’s choice 3rd place award for her poem, “Luna”). Jen writes YA, NA, and nonfiction, and her books include The Secret of Isobel Key (2013), and the forthcoming Daughter of Chaos (2014). Jen is a former reviewer for Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA), and proud member of SCBWI, NCWN, and SCWW. She is a registered yoga teacher (RYT 200), and she loves discovering ways to blend her passions. A Michigander by birth, she now lives and writes in the beautiful state of North Carolina. When she isn't crafting worlds of fiction, she teaches writing composition at a community college. Once upon a time, she was a middle school teacher, a librarian, and a bookseller, but those are stories for another time. Visit www.JenMcConnel.com to learn more.

Addy Robinson McCulloch is a freelance writer and editor whose clients include Pearson Education and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her work has appeared in publications such as Redheaded Stepchild, 234journal, the Iodine Review, and Get Out of My Crotch: 21 Writers Respond to America’s War on Women’s Rights and Reproductive Health. A graduate of Duke University, Addy lives in southeastern NC.

Malena Mörling was born in Stockholm, Sweden. She is the author of two books of poetry: Ocean Avenue, published by New Issues Press in 1999, and Astoria, published by University of Pittsburgh Press in 2006. She has also published translations of the poetry of Edith Södergran, Tomas Tranströmer, and Philip Levine, and is co-editing and co-translating two anthologies of work by Swedish writers. Mörling has received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. In addition to being Core-Faculty in the Low-Residency MFA program at New England College, she is an Associate Professor at UNCW.

Christine Norris is a prose editor at Press 53, where she selects, edits, proofs, and lays out short story collections. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in English and Russian literature. Her passions include grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Alice Osborn is the author of three books of poetry, most recently After the Steaming Stops, and is the editor of the short fiction anthology Tattoos. She’s working on her next poetry book, Heroes without Capes. Her past educational and work experience is unusually varied and now it feeds her strengths as an editor for hire who takes good writers and turns them into great authors. A Pushcart Prize nominee, she has taught writing workshops to hundreds of aspiring authors from 9 to 90 years old, both in person and online. Her pieces have appeared in the News and Observer, The Broad River Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Soundings Review, and in numerous journals and anthologies. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers’ Network and performs her poetry to captivated audiences throughout the South and beyond. Alice lives in Raleigh with her husband and two children. Visit her website at www.aliceosborn.com.

Anna Lena Phillips is editor of Ecotone. She formerly served as senior editor and book review editor at American Scientist magazine, and was a founding editor of the online journal Fringe. A Pocket Book of Forms, her letterpress-printed, travel-sized guide to poetic forms, is forthcoming this fall. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she is a recipient of the Southern Women Writers Conference Emerging Writers Award and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize. Her writing appears in Open Letters Monthly, International Poetry Review, and the Anthology of Appalachian Writers, among other journals. Her projects and pursuits are documented at www.todointhenewyear.net.

Celia Rivenbark is an award-winning journalist, a humor columnist, and the author of the books Bless Your Heart, Tramp; We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier; Stop Dressing Your Six-Year-Old Like a Skank; Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits; You Can’t Drink All Day If You Don’t Start in the Morning; You Don’t Sweat Much for a Fat Girl; and Rude Bitches Make Me Tired. Her titles have won the SEBA Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year and appeared on the New York Times and other bestseller lists. Celia lives in Wilmington with her husband, a hospital executive and true-crime author, and their teenage daughter. Her website is www.celiarivenbark.com.

The Sea Quills are a Wilmington area writing group that meets the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, from 2 - 4 P.M. This is a very committed group of writers who are either already published or striving to become published. Their feedback process is key, and consists of excellent critique of members’ writing delivered in a supportive, encouraging way. They follow the guidelines of the book A Group of One’s Own: Nurturing the Woman Writer. They also act as the NCWN’s Regional Rep for the Wilmington/Cape Fear region. For more info, please contact Charlene Pollano at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Emily Louise Smith directs The Publishing Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and teaches courses on the culture and commerce of publishing. In 2009 she founded the literary imprint Lookout Books and now serves as publisher for both the press and its sister magazine, Ecotone. Under her guidance, Lookout titles have garnered accolades including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Paterson Fiction Prize and have been named finalists for the National Book Award and The Story Prize, among others. Her poems appear in Best New Poets, the Southern Review, New South, and Smartish Pace; and her honors include fellowships from the Studios of Key West, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Hambidge, as well as a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize. Recently she was named Woman of Achievement in the Arts and UNCW Lecturer of the Year.

Beth Staples is on the creative writing faculty at UNCW, where she is Associate Editor for Lookout Books and the literary journal Ecotone. She joined the UNCW faculty from The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University, where she managed the literary journal Hayden's Ferry Review. She has taught classes at UNCW, ASU, conferences, and other community organizations in editing, publishing, fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

Susan Steadman has written for and about the stage throughout several decades as a professional theatre practitioner. Her wide-ranging plays include The Cinderella Chronicles (YouthPLAYS, 2012), performed in five countries, and The Thing with Feathers, which recently appeared in the South Florida Arts Journal and was presented at a national theatre convention. Susan’s competition-winning dark comedies, such as Filling Spaces and Tuesdays We Go to Playgroup, have delighted audiences from New Jersey to Texas. Her publications include Dramatic Re-Visions (ALA), a critically lauded reference work; magazine and journal articles; and contributions to books including Notable Women in the American Theatre. With a Ph.D. in Theatre from LSU, she has taught at universities, schools, camps, and conferences. Along the way, she has staged nearly 70 productions and served as artistic director of a professional theatre for 16 years. A Dramatists Guild member, she resides in Wilmington, where she launched the Port City Playwrights’ Project.

Mitch Tuchman practices intellectual property law in the Durham office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice. Previously head of publications at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mitch’s legal practice includes negotiating publishing, derivative rights and joint authorship agreements. From time to time he is called on to resolve disputes between coauthors. All in all, Mitch has been involved with publishing for more than forty years. Mitch received a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale and a J.D. from American University.

Michael White was educated at the University of Missouri and the University of Utah, where he received his Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing in 1993. His poetry books are This Water, The Island, Palma Cathedral (winner of the Colorado Prize), Re-entry (winner of the Vassar Miller Prize), and the forthcoming Vermeer in Hell (winner of the Lexi Rudnitsky Editors Prize). He also has a memoir, Travels in Vermeer, forthcoming from Persea Books. He has published poetry and prose in The Paris Review, The New Republic, The Kenyon Review, The Best American Poetry, and dozens of other magazines and anthologies. White is currently chair of the Department of Creative Writing at UNCW.

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Book Buzz

Hats Off!

Hats Off! to Greenville's Tony Wayne Brown whose short story "The New Wall on Rue de la Maison" received an Honorable Mention in Oval Magazine's 2016 short-story contest and is included in their annual print publication. It is his sixty-eighth accepted/published piece.